North Florida Fair Follow-up Meeting
Monday, December 8th, 2008
1PM Eastern Time
Members Present:
Lori Wiggins- Taylor
Marcus Boston- Leon
Tracy Tesdall- Leon
Sherri Hood- Wakulla
Yolanda Goode- Gadsden
Henry Grant- Gadsden
Monica Brinkley- Liberty
Chris DeCubellis- Gilchrist
Heather Johnson- Madison
Stella Earnheart- Fair Office
Mark Harvey- Fair Office
Debbie Dowler- Fair Office
Whitney Cherry, Calhoun County
Gladys Neely, Jefferson County
Via Polycom:
Paula Davis- Bay County
Roy Carter- Gulf County
Judy Corbus- Washington/Holmes
Julie Dillard, Washington County
Laura Bowden- Walton County
Heather Kent- Jackson
The meeting was called to order by Lori Wiggins at 1:05 Eastern Time.
Chris DeCubilus made a motion to accept the minutes from the pre-fair meeting as written. Motion passed unanimously.
New Business:
Rotation Schedule for 2009:
Chair- Madison County, Heather Johnson
Co-chair- Calhoun County, Whitney Cherry
Administrative Report from Mark Harvey:
Attendance down 10% from last year (84,000). Dates for next year- November 5th-15th, 2009. Theme will be along the lines of “extreme fun” (demolition derby, etc).
4-H Exhibit Entries
Stella had no report. There were some problems with the actual form (not legible, not turned in on time). Stella can email the entry form as a word document so that they can be typed rather than handwritten.
4-H Department
· Entry tags- chair and co-chair separated entries by color, so tags NEED to be COLOR CODED. County name is also helpful.
· Check-in- went really well. Check-out is difficult when non 4-H staff is picking up exhibits without their check-out stubs. Lori proposed that check-in and check-out be shortened (maybe 10AM-1PM Eastern).
· Day of Judging- more agents are needed to help out after lunch to help set up the exhibits.
· Travel reimbursement- if you do not use a county vehicle, the fair will reimburse one vehicle per county. Agents need to email Debbie Dowler with the address and mileage.
· Discount fair tickets- next year will be $25.00 unlimited rides on 4-H Day at the Fair. Agents requested that the NFF email special brochure to counties to help market 4-H Day at the Fair.
· Awards Ceremony- Emcee needs the script ahead of time to practice name pronunciation. Ag judging needs to be announced last.
· Chair/co-chair compensation- $50.00 each. Lori proposed $75.00 for chair, and $25.00 for co-chair. Since co-chairs do not have as much responsibility, the fair will remove compensation for co-chairs for club booths and share the fun.
· Future rotation schedule- Lori asked agents in the 4-H Department rotation if they would be willing to also chair the other events (booths, share-the fun, etc). Madiosn County will be chair, Calhoun County will be co-chair. Gadsden will be secretary. Lori will update the schedule and email. Heather and Sherri suggested that the NFF chair job descriptions to the NW District 4-H website.
Committee Chairs for 2009:
· Dairy Show- John Lily. No report.
· Share the Fun- Nikki Crawson, chair; Vickie Mullins, co-chair. Chair needs to communicate with Mark if the sound guy needs to be available for warm-ups. Paula recommended 3 entries per county. Deadline could be just a couple of weeks prior to the fair, rather than October 1st. Be sure to notify Stella of any rule changes (usually in March).
· Club Booths- Chris DeCubellis, chair; Roy Carter, co-chair. Only problem was that people did not email Julie to request a booth (a list was passed around at the NFF pre-fair meeting). Requests need to be made directly to the chair for next year to eliminate confusion. Quality of club booths was better this year.
· Ag Judging- Roy Carter/Henry Grant- No sheep class for 2009. Henry proposed increasing the number of teams from 4 to 6 teams per county; number of individuals will be unlimited. There was a discussion about crowding. This year, there were motor homes set up where ag judging tables normally are. Fair will make a note to make sure this doesn’t happen next year.
· Consumer Choices- Judy Corbus- 97 youth in 12 counties participated this year; study guides were really well written. Fair personnel were extremely accommodating. Tracy handled orientation for oral reasons judges; Elizabeth coordinated volunteers. Judy suggested adding a facilities chair to help coordinate/communicate needs with Fair Office. Will work more closely with group leaders to make sure classes are properly labeled. Judy also suggested that ribbons and trophies be available at next year’s pre-fair meeting so that chairs can double-check.
· Horticulture- David Marshall- more participation this year. May have a training DVD available to counties next year. Will offer another training
Miscellaneous
· Not enough Fair ribbons- more participation this year; additional ribbons will be ordered for next year. If you are missing ribbons, let Debbie know and she can get additional ribbons.
· Checks for booths and exhibits will be mailed.
· Score sheets need to be updated with new criteria, and sheets for intermediates need to be created
· Check in will be November 2nd, 10AM-1PM
· Judging will be November 4th, Orientation 9:45AM
· Check-out- November 16th, 10AM-1PM
· Debbie and Stella asked chairs of all the departments to count leftover ribbons and trophies and let them know. Paula suggested that the Fair leave a tally sheet in the boxes of ribbons to help remind chairs. Heather will update that on the job descriptions.
North Florida Pre-Fair Meeting will be August 10th, 2009 at 1PM EASTERN at the Leon County Extension Office.
Meeting was adjourned at 2:30PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Heather C. Kent